Released by Universe (also known as Universe
Laser) in 2006, this disc for the 1989 Godzilla
film is a pretty good "budget" title,
as it boasts decent video and audio quality.
The extras are nonexistent, though, but at the
$8-12 price range that's an easy pill to swallow.

Video:

To be brutally honest, I have pretty low
expectations when it comes to region 3 and 0
DVDs. So one can imagine my surprise when the
title to the movie came up displaying
a very vibrant array of colors and without a
scratch or other overt sign of print damage in
sight. Alas, it's a shame that intentional impression
didn't hold for the remainder of the video track,
as there are some noticeable problems with the
transfer process. Granted, the colors are vivid,
but a lot of details were washed out, especially
during the brighter scenes, as it seems that
Universe simply jacked up the color saturation
to achieve this effect. Second up, there is also
some noticeable signs of compression, including
a soft overall image while artifacting (pixilation) is also
noticeable, especially during the many darker
scenes in the movie. On the plus side, there
doesn't appear to be almost any apparent print damage,
as there are no visible
scratches while grain appears to be very minimal,
although the artifacting makes this harder to
gauge.

Also on the plus side, this movie is presented
in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, and is
Anamorphic for widescreen TVs. So there are some
problems, but given the extreme budget nature
of the release I was still fairly impressed
with Universe' efforts here.

Audio:

The disc contains two audio tracks, one being
the original Japanese audio and the other dubbed
into Cantonese. Both of them are presented in
two channel stereo. In terms of audio quality,
the two tracks are identical, as clearly the
included Japanese track was used to master the
dubbed version from. There is nice clarity in
the two as well, with dialogue coming through
clear and no inconsistencies to speak of as the
audio sounds very nice. My only complaint with
the actual tracks would be that it was recorded
a little low, but that's easily adjustable on
one's set.

In terms of subtitles, the disc comes with three
different variations, all of which apply to the
Japanese track. The first two are in Chinese,
traditional and simplified, while the third features
English subtitles that are accompanied by traditional
Chinese subtitles as well. In terms of the accuracy
of the subtitles, well there are definitely some
problems. Even the English lines are fudged here,
as Universe seems to have gone to translating
the dialogue from Japanese (or English as is
sometimes spoken in the movie) to Chinese and
then finally to English, leaving the lines a
little muddled, but the general gist is there
and I have certainly seen far, far worse attempts
from other Hong Kong based firms.

Extras:

This disc has menus, a sparse eight chapters
and nothing else. People are going to have to
look elsewhere if they want "bonus material"
for the 1989 production.

Overview:

Bottom
line, this is far from a great DVD, but those
looking to just experience the film at a very
low price, and have access to a region 3/free
player, will likely enjoy this release for what
it is.